New Missionary & First Baptism Service of the Year
July 7, 2021
Dear Brethren,
Time flies when you are having fun. It has been a long time since I reported to you. For several months there wasn’t much positive to tell. For most of this year, it has been kinda rough. Things are improving a little though, so here goes.
After the last trip to the Moa the rivers went down quickly. Just as I was to go to the upper Juruá River the bottom dropped out and things opened up for us to start having public services again. For the first six weeks I put in a lot of long hours on the building and sermon/lesson prep. At first, we were having all the services streamed live until folks could get used to coming back to the in house services. Now we stream just the Sunday night service. Attendance has not yet gotten back to normal levels. However, we feel that things are looking pretty good, given the level of fear that so many people suffered. We have services on Wednesday, Sunday AM and Sunday PM. For the 2 months that we have been back there have been at least 300 people in every service.
We had our first baptism service of the year. There were 528 people present and 41 new members were baptized. Pastor Ezi baptized the adults, and I baptized the children. We also observed the Lord’s Supper.
Here is a little side story about this particular baptism. My granddaughter Kayla came to my office to talk to me. She had already requested baptism at church, but wanted to talk to me about her baptism. First she gave me a pretty good lesson on the doctrine of baptism. Not bad for an 8-year-old. Then she got down to talking to me about what she really wanted. She wanted to know if grandpa could “bapticize” her. Now I am not sure that I got the spelling right, but I got the meaning!
She is Crissy’s only girl. Later Andrew’s youngest came with the same request. So that is how I came to baptize (or “bapticize”) the 17 children, Kayla and Devin among them.
Last Saturday we had an activity here at the house. Occasionally we have what we call “Breakfast with the Pastors”. It is an opportunity for people to have some casual time with the 7 pastors. About 80 people showed up at 7:00AM. We spent a great couple of hours together. We had a surprise announcement during the gathering. One of our evangelists, who works at our chapel at Cruzeirinho, announced that he was going into full time mission work. His name is Jeverton. The pastor of the chapel and he had met with me 3 other times over the past few weeks to talk about the fields that are ready and waiting. He is going to be our itinerant missionary on the Juruá River from Ipixuna to the border. He will be checking in on all of our congregations and preaching the gospel house to house. Next, we need those other 2 missionaries, for those 2 other fields!
There have been one or more saved on all weekends since we started services again. Also, our youth (15-24) and Youth+ (25 and older) have started back. The nursery is also back. We are still not able to have our children’s programs, but hope to begin soon. The lockdown here has been severe, to say the least, but we are getting things back as soon as possible, trying not to have the authorities breathing down our necks. We still have whistle blowers reporting us all the time. We are doing our best at trying to be bold and wise at the same time.
Well, that is pretty much what is going on. Busy, tired and happy. Hope you are, too.
Thanks for all your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
CONTACT INFO
Mike & Beverly Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
69980 Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre
Brasil, SA
mdcreig@hotmail.com
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280 | Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online.
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6 Professions of Faith through Projeto IDE, Visiting Gama, Serra do Moa, São Domingos
Mike and Beverly Creiglow have served the Lord in Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil together since 1971. In addition to pastoring First Baptist of Cruzeiro do Sul, Mike builds his own boats and frequently travels up and down rivers to share the Gospel with those who have never heard.
October 10, 2019
Dear Brethren,
We have had a great summer. The weather has been crazy though. Several unseasonable cold fronts and lots of rain. With all the rain I thought I would be on the rivers by now, but the Juruá is super low. The roads are open though, but very muddy.
We had a wonderful visit by 5 men from Calvary Church in Missouri. Pastor Randy Sawyer brought four of his men to see the work here. We took them on Projeto IDE to Profeta on a Saturday. Projeto IDE (Ide means GO!) involves doctors, nurses, dentists, haircuts, hygiene, arts, crafts, culinary classes, sewing classes, distribution of clothes, children’s classes and, of course evangelism. We went by road since the river is so low. The village is right on the river and our building is a stone’s throw from the riverbank, but now we also have a road. We had 2 big thunderstorms that afternoon, so the return was “fun”. I won’t bore you with all the numbers, but one must be shared. There were 6 professions of faith, 2 at Treze de Maio and 4 at Profeta. We didn’t get back to town until after 1:00AM because of the poor condition of the road.
On Sunday we made a visit to our new work at Gama. We just sent our missionary couple Anísio and Matilde just last January. We had already started the work and already had a building up, but now that we have a missionary there full time the work has really taken off. The village is on tributary of the Juruá River in the state of Amazonas. There is now a road that cuts north through the jungle to this town of 170 families. They have services around town in homes on Tuesday nights. Thursday is teaching at church. Friday is prayer meeting and then 2 services on Sunday. They have more than 100 in attendance on Sunday night. The guys from Missouri got to try out a short dugout canoe “trip” on the beautiful stream in front of the village. Since then we have started the parsonage. We have the foundation in and Anísio is putting in the fill dirt right now.
We have also started a new church building at Serra do Moa. This work is in a small village 100 miles west of us at the base of a low range of mountains. The Moa River starts on this side of the Peruvian border and actually flows through a canyon flowing east until it flows into the Juruá River right here at Cruzeiro do Sul. This is my favorite river in the whole region. I started preaching at Serra do Moa when I was just 18 years old. We didn’t actually get a permanent congregation planted until the mid 90’s. Our missionaries there are Rivaldo and Leila. This is our third building. The second one is wooden and still in good shape, but they have grown and wanted to put in a new brick/ wood structure this time. We already have the foundation, slab and brick wall up to 2 feet.
I also made a visit to our congregation at São Domingos. This village is right next door to the Poyanawa Indian reservation (where we also have a work). The church at Assis Brasil has been taking care of the congregation at São Domingos. They have just finished new brick building, so I went to do the dedication. The building was packed to beyond capacity. There was one profession of faith.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
Mike and Beverly Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil 69980
mdcreig [at] hotmail.com
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The Lord at Work in Tipisca, Peru
Mike and Beverly Creiglow have served the Lord in Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil together since 1971. In addition to pastoring First Baptist of Cruzeiro do Sul, Mike builds his own boats and frequently travels up and down rivers to share the Gospel with those who have never heard.
March 21, 2019
Dear Brethren,
A few days ago Zico (our missions director) and Lúcio Maia went with me up river to the border and beyond. The first leg of the trip took us all the way to the border village of Foz do Breu. It took us over 11 hours to do those almost 300 miles. We had some engine trouble, but still made it before dark.
People are moving back to the village and we had really good crowds for the services, over 70 people. Before heading into Peru we held a morning baptism service. I baptized 12. One couple had been waiting for some time to first get legally married then baptized. Ercílio had been one of the town drunks and enemy of the gospel. Now he is a go-getter missionary. He has made 22 mission trips in the last 12 months. He used to detest the native tribes up the Breu River. Now he has become friends and has made 5 mission trips to visit our brothers from the Kaxinauá tribe.
We continued to Tipisca, Peru. On arrival, our missionary José Maia (Lúcio’s dad) took our baggage to his house on his 4 wheeler. I stayed behind to get the boat and motor bedded down. Just as I finished, a huge tropical rain storm came in. There is no pavement in Tipisca and this time of year the mud is knee deep in many places. When I saw the rain was not going to stop I decided to go ahead and make my way up the slippery bank and into town through the driving rain and mud. I had to go barefoot and on the way I slit my foot open on who knows what. For the rest of that week my feet were wet and muddy most of the time and could not bandage the foot. A week later it had pretty much healed up though, so no harm no foul.
We dedicated the new building on the weekend. José Maia did an admirable job and built the building to match the design we use all over in our congregations. It seats over 100 people, is on a corner lot, right on the main street of Tipisca. This newly purchased lot and what we already had, gives us over an acre. We had over 200 people in at least 2 services and well over a hundred in the other 2. The army brought most of their soldiers out for 1 service and the local police department came on Sunday morning. This is a first. In fact we had never had crowds like this in the several years since we opened the work there (over 10 years). Up to now we had made inroads among the children, but no progress with the adults. They now have a big group of kids and a number of adults that attend regularly.
Let me tell you about one of the ladies who trusted Christ while we were there. Dona Mila and her husband are in their 70’s and were what you might call founders of Tipisca. She was born over on the coast of Brazil and moved to Cruzeiro do Sul as a little girl. Her husband is Peruvian and was working in our town as a young man. They met and married. When the Peruvian government put in an outpost a few miles up the Juruá River from the border the young couple moved there. This became the town of Porto Breu, which the locals call Tipisca. Dona Mila and her husband were drinking buddies. It was not uncommon to see the couple sleeping off their liquor in the grass along the paths of town. They were both at church with us. Both have stopped drinking and Dona Mila has trusted Christ!
We came all the way back to Cruzeiro do Sul in one long day, but not without more engine trouble. I had to stop in the middle of nowhere and repair the motor at high noon, lots of bugs and mud, too. This motor is now over 10 years old and broken down on me on my last 3 trips. It is about time to replace it. I will be looking to you to help me with this in the near future. For now, just pray.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
Mike and Beverly Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil 69980
mdcreig [at] hotmail.com
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Bro. Brandon’s Courage and Wisdom Brought to Fruition in Porto Walter!
Mike and Beverly Creiglow have served the Lord in Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil together since 1971. In addition to pastoring First Baptist of Cruzeiro do Sul, Mike builds his own boats and frequently travels up and down rivers to share the Gospel with those who have never heard.
October 15, 2018
Dear Brethren,
Our founder, missionary Joseph F Brandon, arrived in Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre in 1926. He was the first man to bring the gospel to the Juruá valley. Just 3 years later he organized First Baptist Church with 13 members. He continued to share the Good News in the villages along the river with his new converts. To reach these distant villages he had a boat built and named it “The Pilgrim”. Many of the members of first Baptist traveled with him.
About 100 miles upstream he came to a little town called Porto Walter. At the time, Porto Walter was the biggest village other than Cruzeiro do Sul. It was a major hub for the collection of native rubber and distribution of merchandise to the rubber workers. The nuns and priests put in their biggest schools there. Children came from all around to go to these schools, which had dorms for the kids. The Catholic religious leaders were actually more powerful and influential than in Cruzeiro do Sul.
When Brother Brandon arrived there and was getting ready to land, the head priest, a stern and cruel German named Dom Henrique, sent a mob down to the river’s edge. As one of Brother Brandon’s new converts grabbed the rope and got ready to jump ashore, one of the men in the crowd, brandishing his machete, said, “If you try to tie up here I will cut the rope and cut you up, too!” Brother Brandon backed away from the confrontation. “The Pilgrim” moved on up river to a little village called Campo de Santana. There he preached and many were saved. We still have a congregation there to this day.
After the threat by the most powerful man on the Juruá River, Dom Henrique, it seemed as if Porto Walter was put off limits to the gospel. When we first visited Campo de Santana in the early 60’s I found it strange that we would pass this big town by to visit a little congregation further upstream.
Later on I was called to be a missionary and I too would pass Porto Walter and continue spreading the Gospel all the way up the Juruá and into Peru. It just wasn’t right. Then in the early 90’s I made a special visit to the town to “case the place”, you might say. In 1992 I made a strong appeal for a missionary to Porto Walter in our annual missions and pastors conference. Two years later First Baptist Church sent Brother Mário and family. I took them up, rented a house and started looking for property. The Catholic church was not at all happy that these “crentes” (believers) had dared to invade their territory. It was really hard and the persecution was nonstop, although they were no longer able to use bodily harm as a tool to try to stop us.
Nine years ago, we sent Mário to a new field. In his place we sent Alexandre and Rejane. They had just finished seminary and had spent several months in our own internship at First Baptist Church to complete their training.
Last week I went up to visit the work and celebrate our 24th anniversary of the first steps of our work at Porto Walter. We now have a parsonage and a new 2 story building. The building is still under construction, but usable. We had 3 days of teaching and preaching. Three more people were saved and on Sunday morning I baptized 21 new members.
Here is the best part though: On Sunday night, October 14, 2018 we organized First Baptist Church of Porto Walter with 158 charter members. The church already has 4 congregations that they visit every weekend. They bought 2 boats and motors to take their missionaries to their fields.
The cruelty of those priests and nuns of years past is now just a faint memory in the history of Porto Walter as hundreds flock to First Baptist Church every week to hear the Word of God.
As for the priest Dom Henrique, all that is left is his name on a school here in town. He eventually became the bishop over the whole Juruá Valley parish, but left no lasting legacy. Jesus Christ is leaving a vivid lasting mark on all of this region by way of his churches and servants.
Brother Brandon, “The Pilgrim” and her precious cargo didn’t live to see what I have seen. However, his courage and wisdom have come to fruition. His legacy is eternal.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
Mike and Beverly Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil 69980
mdcreig [at] hotmail.com
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God is Opening Doors with the Hunikuim People
Mike and Beverly Creiglow have served the Lord in Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil together since 1971. In addition to pastoring First Baptist of Cruzeiro do Sul, Mike builds his own boats and frequently travels up and down rivers to share the Gospel with those who have never heard.
February 9, 2018
Dear Brethren,
Pastor Ezi and Zico (our missions coordinator) went with me to the upper Juruá River a couple of weeks ago. We spent 8 days visiting seven works and as many of our missionaries. We traveled over 600 miles on two rivers. The names of the places and people probably won’t mean anything to you, so I will skip right to the highlights. All of our missionaries reported and showed us first hand some good solid growth at each congregation.
At Foz do Breu (Mouth of the Breu River) on the Peruvian border we were pleased to find out that a few of the families who had left the village have now come back. Attendance has come back up. Our missionary there, José Costa, has gotten the congregation into a steady rhythm of mission trips. They have 3 teams that alternate visits to 3 villages downstream from them. Just last month 4 more were saved at Pedra Pintada. We had great services with good crowds. On Sunday morning I baptized 8.
On our visit to Tipisca, Peru we got to see José Maia’s excitement at making the first breakthroughs. Besides the Peruvians in the town there are 5 other ethnic groups and languages. Everyone is dirt poor. All there is to do is drink, drugs and prostitution. The children in the town have been the open door to the gospel. José and Silvânia have been working with about 40 children every day, sometimes all day and into the night. It was fun to watch Silvânia playing soccer with the kids at the end of the day behind the church building. Now some adults are coming around. Some of the kids are already saved and 2 adults, also.
As I have reported before the doors have finally opened up for us to reach the Hunikuim people on the Breu River. This tribe is called Kaxinauá (bat people) by most folks. They, however, call themselves Hunikuim which means the “original People” Their language is called Hanchakuim or language of THE people. We visited the São José village over 50Km up river from the Juruá, inland and east. This section had to be navigated by canoe.
The visit there was just crazy from start to finish. We were informed ahead of time to not take anything out of the canoe, because the Indians wanted to carry everything for us. The whole village was gathered at the river. They were dancing and shouting to welcome us. The men had their headdresses and paint on. The women were painted and dressed in long colorful skirts and blouses. The women had long decorated paddles that they were smacking together, too. I was the first one to set foot on land. When I reached the top of the bank 2 of the girls grabbed each of my hands while wielding those paddles and led me to their great house. I had no idea what was going on or what might happen. The village all came into the great house to welcome us and explain the local “telephone” system. They have these horns made of bamboo, armadillo tails and bees wax. They have different calls for meal time and meeting time. The Hunikuim love to eat and meet. Seems they are born “almost Baptists”!
The food, by the way, was pretty good. The hunting party came in with some monkeys, so that is what we had for the first dinner. I got a piece of neck, which was tough, but tasty. Most Baptist preachers should be able to see the hidden significance of that.
At the first service, more surprises. During the song service, in their language and to their kind of music, a group of the women and girls came into the great house and began to dance. They started out a kind of line dance, which morphed into a circle after several minutes. Then suddenly one of them reached out and pulled me into the circle. This may be a step too far, but try to imagine me trying to follow their steps and swinging arms while going around in circles. Well with that last sentence I probably lost all of my support! The headline, “missionary caught on camera dancing with a bunch of women, none of whom are his wife.” Well when the song mercifully ended, most of the congregation had been dragged into the circle.
After that I preached about the lost sheep in Luke 15. The chief’s brother interpreted for me. A few of those present had already been saved. Cosma and her brother Bibiano had been won through José Maia’s ministry. The chief and his brother had also been saved later. There were 6 other professions of faith. After the next service, the following morning, I baptized 8 of them.
There are 5 villages of Hunikuim on the Breu River. The head chief over all of them is called Zeca. He is not saved, but came around to tell me that the whole tribe has approved our presence in their villages to preach the gospel. What a turnaround. Just a few short years ago a judge ordered us out. Now the people have invited us back in. Their rule supersedes Brazilian court rulings. The same is happening in other tribes all around us and doors continue to open. Invitations are coming in from all around. This is exciting stuff. Please pray for us as we try to keep pushing the gospel to the most remote places on earth.
They have invited me to come back in March when they plan to gather the other villages for a 3 day meeting. Now here is where you come in with more than your prayers. This last trip cost me over $600.00 just in gasoline. I had to buy an extra 4 gallons of fuel at one of the villages. That was at $10.00 per gallon. Please keep me supplied with fuel and equipment. As long as my health permits I want to continue to reach as many people as possible, no matter how far or difficult it may be.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
Mike and Beverly Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil 69980
mdcreig [at] hotmail.com
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Two Native Missionary Families Sent Out as First Baptist Cruzeiro do Sul Celebrates 88th Anniversary
Mike and Beverly Creiglow have served the Lord in Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil together since 1971. In addition to pastoring First Baptist of Cruzeiro do Sul, Mike builds his own boats and frequently travels up and down rivers to share the Gospel with those who have never heard.
June 8, 2017
Dear Brethren,
First Baptist Church turned 88 on May 12. The church was organized on May 12, 1929 by missionary Joe Brandon with 13 members. God has blessed her and brought growth in many areas. For many years we held our missions conference during the last week of July. This was mostly due to the weather! That is our dry season and made it easier for our workers to get to town. The roads have improved (a little) so we decided to make our conference coincide with the church’s anniversary. For the past three years we have held our annual missions conference in mid-May. This year it was May 12 through 14.
The Sunday morning service was a red-letter day. We started out by adding 26 new members by baptism followed by the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. We also had reports from more of our missionaries. The big deal though was the approval of 2 new missionaries. One is a Brazilian who will be taking care of the field at Foz do Breu on the upper Juruá River at the Peruvian border. José Costa and wife are already installed and will be taking care of the congregation there and the preaching points down stream as far as São João. The other new missionary is Freddy and Felicinda. They are Peruvian and also of the Kaxinauá people. They are now in Tipisca, Peru. They have 2 major tasks: working to win people from the several ethnic groups in Tipisca and to continue to reach the 5 Kaxinauá villages on the Breu River. We already had inroads into 3 of the villages through Cosma and Damiana’s family. Now we are in all 5 villages.
As you may recall, we already have a Brazilian couple working in Tipisca: José Maia and Silvânia. The work is really tough there. The town is only a thousand or so people. There is a Peruvian army outpost there. The soldiers make very meager salaries. Most of them spend their money on drinking and prostitutes. None of them come to church. They are isolated and hard to reach. There is a handful of native Peruvians who work mostly in government jobs. These, too, stay closed away. Then there are the folks from the tribes. There are Ashaninka, Jaminauas, Kaxinaua, Amauaca and Arara. The Ashaninka have one linguistic line. The other 4 tribes speak different dialects of a completely different language strain. You walk just a few feet in the town and hear Spanish and the indian languages. What a mess. These different tribal groups are open to the Gospel, but how to communicate? Progress is being made, but very slowly.
It had been some time since I checked on the works on the lower Juruá River. Pastor Rondisson went with me to visit Ipixuna. This town is in the state of Amazonas and is over 150 miles downstream. The river is still pretty high, so we had an easy 5-hour trip. There is a Baptist convention church there, but it is Pentecostal. The pastor is from the Assembly of God! We don’t have any contact or involvement with them. There is also an evangelical church that is identical to us in every way except it just isn’t Baptist. They are mission-minded and we have encouraged them and got them going on several mission projects. We started 3 congregations that they visit regularly. We don’t have a missionary to send there, so we do what we can to help. There is a large village called Pernanbuco a few miles further down the river that has over 100 families. We plan to take our medical team there soon as a first step to getting a work started in the village.
Thanks for all your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
Mike and Beverly Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil 69980
mdcreig [at] hotmail.com
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Church Planting in Multiple “Municipíos”
Mike and Beverly Creiglow have served the Lord in Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil together since 1971. In addition to pastoring First Baptist of Cruzeiro do Sul, Mike builds his own boats and frequently travels up and down rivers to share the Gospel with those who have never heard.
May 16, 2017
Dear Brethren,
The state of Acre has 22 “counties”. Here they are called municípios (municipalities). We are trying to plant churches in all of them. So far, we have churches in 7 of the “county seats”. The 2 largest cities are the capital, Rio Branco, and Cruzeiro do Sul. These churches have been around for years. The other 5 churches are in smaller cities close to us. Now we are going for the most isolated towns that have no Baptist church. We sent a missionary family to the city of Jordão 2 years ago.
This month we made a visit to Jordão and a survey trip to Santa Rosa do Purús. We had to fly to these cities that are deep in the forest and along the Peruvian border. We chartered the New Tribes Mission plane. It was necessary to make and pay for 2 flights as the pilot had to come from way up north in Roraima to make our flights and others over a short 1 week period. New Tribes Mission has a plane here now and mechanics, but still don’t have a pilot stationed here.
Jordão is on the Tarauacá River. The population is 8000 and 60% of these are from the Jaminaus and Kaxinauwa tribes. Our missionary couple is Idevaldo, Queila and their daughters, Vitória and Ludmilla. They have already bought a house and rented a place to hold services. We had a low of 45 people and a high of over 70 in services. One young couple that they have won to Christ have already been trained to help with the music. The man did not play any kind of instrument. Idevaldo taught him to play bass in 3 months. Idevaldo plays guitar and actually made his own instrument! Very talented. Queila has started a kid’s club that has an average of 25 children attending. They have already acquired 2 lots for us to put up our first church building. They are also already doing mission work in the villages and along the streams out of town. I am so proud of them. On Sunday morning, I baptized the first 14 members.
Our visit to the town of Santa Rosa do Purús was exciting, too. This is the smallest town in the Acre: 6000 people. 70% of these are Kaxinauwa. It is almost 2 hours by air. For us to get there by land and river we have to go 250 miles east by road then up river from the bridge on the Purús River for another 225 miles. The Purús is another one of the major tributaries of the Amazon River that flows parallel to the Juruá River. It flows into the Amazon a few hundred miles downstream from the mouth of the Juruá River. In other words, we are getting into a completely new river valley.
There is already a small group of the Kaxinauwa who meet and hold services. The tribe is called “Kaxinauá” by most folks. The name means “people of the bat”, as in the animal. They call themselves “Huni Kuim”, which means “The True People”. Many of the tribes around us see themselves as the original people of the earth and superior to all others. Their “building” is really just a hut. There are 6 poles, thatch roof and dirt floor. We had 50+ in the one service we held. The singing and most of the service was in their native language. My message was NOT in Huni Kuim! They all understand Portuguese.
The town has 15 sects and cults, but no Baptist church, so we are going to try to open the work there soon. There are 46 villages along the river between the border and the bridge, so we have our work cut out for us.
I took Zico (our missions coordinator), Ruben (one of our businessmen), and Rondisson (one of our chapel pastors) along on this trip. Please pray for the new missionary that we need and the funds to support him, whoever he may be. So much to do and so few workers and funds.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
Baptism in Jordão
Service with the indigenous folks at Santa Rosa do Purús
Baptism in Jordão
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
Mike and Beverly Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil 69980
mdcreig [at] hotmail.com
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Snapshots from works along the Juruá River
Mike and Beverly Creiglow have served the Lord in Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil together since 1971. In addition to pastoring First Baptist of Cruzeiro do Sul, Mike builds his own boats and frequently travels up and down rivers to share the Gospel with those who have never heard.
April 10, 2017
Dear Brethren,
March Madness? I missed most of it since I was up river on a long mission trip. You won’t hold that against me, will you?
The river is very high right now, so travel is a bit easier. My bigger boat has a top and windshield, which make things much better, too. Three of our men went with me. Zico (our missions director), Rondisson (one of our chapel pastors) and Sisnando, a young man who just got to go on his very first mission trip. Our visits were to Porto Walter, Triunfo, Foz do Breu, Thaumaturgo and Tipisca in Peru. All of these locations are on the Juruá River. We travelled 625 miles. We used 95 gallons of gasoline at $6.70 per gallon. The trip cost just under $640.00. Gasoline here in town is a little cheaper, but I can now gas up at 2 of the towns upstream. That makes it possible to travel lighter, but pushes the cost up. The weather was perfect. We didn’t have any muddy river banks. There weren’t too many bloodsucking insects. Best of all though is that all the works are doing well. We had one profession of faith. I also baptized 6 at Foz do Breu on the border.
Tipisca is still a tough place, but showing signs of getting better. One of Damiana’s brothers, Bibiano and his wife Eva have been saved and are being trained by our missionary José Maia and his wife, Silvânia. Bibiano’s family is from the Kaxinauá tribe (pronounced kah-shee-now-ah). This name was given to them many years ago by the white folks. It means “bat people”. Nobody remembers why. The real name amongst the tribe is Hunikuim (pronounced hu-nee-ku-een) which means “the true people”. They see themselves as the “real” humans and then there are all the others. They see themselves as the “Jews” and all the rest of us are the “Gentiles”. Anyway, there have been 15 of the “real people” saved over the last few months. We now have a new missionary from their own people, who we brought from the Purús region to work with them. We now have regular preaching points at 3 of the 5 villages on the Breu River. The other 2 villages are now open and inviting Fredi and José Maia to preach to them, too. Fredi has worked very hard to win his own people and the results are coming in. He has also worked with the other tribes in and around Tipisca to get the gospel to them. As I walk around the small town of Tipisca I hear a little Spanish, a smattering of Portuguese, but mostly 5 other Indian languages. The town has grown to about a thousand people. However, the cultural, moral and linguistic jumble is a huge barrier to the gospel.
The work here in Cruzeiro do Sul is thriving. The construction of our rebuild and expansion is progressing slowly. The finish work on the annex is moving along in its final stages. The building continues to fill up every week. Our children’s services, both morning and evening have grown. Since we have added extra rooms in the annex, this has given more space in the main building for adults and youth. It will soon be overflowing again, by God’s grace. We will need the new balconies that are in the project very soon. The economic crisis in Brazil has really held us back, but God will supply. Several more have been saved. Others have come back to church. We even have had several new members by letter, which is rather unusual here.
My son-in-law, Pastor Dauro, has malaria again and some of my other pastors have been off on other projects. That means that I have been doing much of the preaching and teaching. I work on the buildings by day and teach at night. Long hours, but fun. My health has been great and have been feeling fine, so all is well here in our tropical paradise. Keep praying, though. Need it always.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
Mike and Beverly Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil 69980
mdcreig [at] hotmail.com
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